


Those Childhood Games

by Mandergee



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: AU, F/M, Gen, Spoilers for The Force Awakens, theory regarding Rey's origins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-13 08:56:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5702569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mandergee/pseuds/Mandergee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, even an innocent game of hide and seek can reveal more than just the hidden player. When Rey and Ben play...their game reveals something no one expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those Childhood Games

**Author's Note:**

> So yes, I've seen the movie, and if you haven't, don't read further (It doesn't spoil any major plot points, but I'd rather not you be spoiled if you wish not to be).
> 
> Also: I know this doesn't REALLY jive with a lot of what's canon, but it just felt right. 
> 
> And obviously I had to make up a few things, so...I just hope you enjoy it.

       “Papa, I can’t find Ben.” Luke smiled, staring down at his daughter, whose lip trembled as wide brown eyes peered up at him in dismay. “We’re playing hide and seek, and I can’t find him _anywhere_.”

    “Well, Rey- that’s the point of hide and seek. Have you tried the storage shed?”

    “But we aren’t supposed to hide in there.” The storage shed their tiny family shared with the neighboring home- belonging to Han and Leia, though circumstances left them more often than not lodging elsewhere-was full of broken droids and pieces that Han determined held some sort of value. Leia had been the reasonable one, decreeing that neither of their spirited children be allowed to set foot within unless supervised, but Luke knew as well as her husband did that children were apt to do exactly the opposite of what they were told. Especially, he reflected, children who came from as spirited a line as the Skywalkers. “Auntie Leia said so.”

    “And sometimes you listen- but I happen to know that once or twice you’ve been hiding in there too, Rey. Would you like me to go with you and look?”

    “If I just look and come back, Papa, can I go alone?”

    “You’ll take R2-D2, instead, then. How’s that?” His own little girl was independent in ways that mirrored Leia, though Luke found himself occasionally mourning the fact that he and his sister hadn’t shared a childhood as Ben and Rey would- and it simultaneously cheered and saddened him to see the family resemblances in his child.

    “All right.” The droid rolled forth from his usual place- always nearby, usually dormant unless needed- and trailed after the little girl in her dusty brown jumpsuit and sandy brown hair. She favored her mother, another fact that saddened him occasionally, and the memory of her lived in his mind to be revived daily in Rey’s eager smile. “Be careful.”

    “I will!” The silence settled over him as the two ambled away, and Luke surveyed the lush green surroundings with a deep sigh. He hadn’t been a farmer, nor a hunter, nor anything other than a Jedi for so long that it had taken years to become accustomed to doing anything other than constantly plotting against the Empire, and settling down on Zaboombafoo with his sister and her husband had seemed uncomfortable at first- almost awkward.

    Until he’d met Zarina, and the need to be a husband to the beautiful woman with hair the color of rich chocolate and eyes that rivaled the stars had been the _only_ thing he’d desired. Obi Wan would have said something about it, he’d thought, although in his mind's eye the old Jedi master had smiled over him the day he’d knelt in the lush green grasses and asked Zarina to become his wife. To carry on with him until the ends of time and space...and he’d sworn he’d heard a warm chuckle of approval from somewhere from beyond when she’d said yes.

    “Looks like we’ve got to tighten the shingles on the roof,” He commented to himself, gazing up at the roof next door. Neglect often fell to him when Han and Leia were off planet, and he happily took on the repairs as well as care for their son Ben- whose future, he imagined, may be well set in the ways of the Force. Never had he trained another before, and Obi-Wan came to mind yet again as he wondered what the first steps would be, were Ben to show talent in the ways of the Jedi. _Or Rey_ , he heard his sister’s voice echo in his thoughts, chastising him for discounting his own offspring so easily. 

_"After all, Luke, she is your child."_

    _"And Ben is yours."_

_"But I don’t have the same talent you do."_ Leia’s connection was so much less involved than his own, and sometimes he’d envied the fact that while she possessed a keen mind and talent for the military operations the resistance required...she’d dodged the curse that was a Jedi’s life. Or blessing, though sometimes he wondered which he’d more consider it to be. Obi-Wan dying- and Zarina- with Luke having no way to save either despite his Jedi powers, had been something he’d had to live with. Something he’d found impossible to live with, for a time, and each day made it easier with the help of those he loved who stayed behind.

    “Papa!” The call echoed across the distance between house and storage shed, and Luke found himself striding desperately toward the sound of his daughter’s voice with the panic he knew came from being alone. Once his wife had gone he’d found letting go of Rey to be much harder than he’d anticipated, and though the lines had slackened over the months, the sound of her cries still had his heart threatening to leap out of his chest. “ _Papa_!!”

    “Rey!?” The door to the she'd hung open and he burst through the open doorway, habit causing his prosthetic hand to grope for a tool on his belt that was no longer there. Inside was...nothing- a quiet tableau that had him skittering to a stop in puzzlement.

    Until he realized that Rey was nowhere in sight and his heart, having just begun to slow its beat, resumed it's rapid tattoo against his ribs.

    “Rey!!!”

    “Papa!” It came from above, and Luke raised his eyes to the wealth of storage nets hanging limply from metal rafters- one of which contained his daughter, fists grasping at the thick rope comprising her temporary prison.

    “How did you-”

    “It was me, Uncle Luke.” The odd calm Ben exhibited reminded him of someone, yet Luke ignored the whispers in the back of his mind as he considered his nephew carefully. The boy stood beneath Rey now, raven hair slick against his head and brown eyes manifesting the familiar confidence of his father. “At least….I think it was me. All I did was try to hide from Rey...and I thought….”

    “What did you think, Ben?”

    “I just thought about keeping her away from me,” The boy whispered. “And then she was up in the nets. I know we aren’t _supposed_ to play in here, and I didn’t know how to get her down again. I didn’t mean to do it.”

    “I know you didn’t.” _It’s already starting_ , Luke thought, and glanced up at Rey, whose panic had subsided at the sight of her father, though he could see her tiny knuckles whitening at the effort put into grasping the rope. “Hold tight, Rey- I’ll have you down in a moment.”

    “How did I do it, Uncle Luke?”

    “That, Ben, is something we’ll discuss shortly. When your parents come home.” They were due back from the resistance capital shortly, he knew, though R2D2 would have the exact agenda of their trip and would impart the information once the children had been put to bed for the night. The three of them had decided long ago that the children would be kept as far away from the knowledge of the resistance as possible to keep them safe from harm, and R2 had been instructed to never speak of it until they were completely out of earshot. “In the meantime, I’ll take care of Rey- I want you to go back to the house and clean up for dinner.”

    “Shall I fetch a ladder, Uncle?”

    “No. Back to the house, Ben. Now.”

    “Yes, sir.” Confidence had given way to a glimmer of shame- perhaps embarrassment, though the other inherited trait from his father had been bravado, and Ben managed to school his expression rapidly before scurrying past his uncle and out into the evening. As he vanished into the house, Luke waved his hand quickly, easing his daughter down from the ceiling with minimal effort. Her own eyes grew wide, and he held a finger gently to his lips in warning.

    “You’re not to tell anyone that I could help you this way, Rey.”

    “Are you a Jedi, Papa?” Trust his child to jump to the one conclusion he’d fought for her entire life to conceal. Her cleverness belayed her age, and on occasion had cause to frighten him with its rapid development, though there was also pride- as he knew it as much increased her chance of remaining with the light than it did draw her toward the dark side. _She’ll be nothing like my father, my Rey. Not if I have a hope of preventing it_.

    “I was,” He admitted. “Once. That was a long time ago, and I promised your mother I would do my best to keep you safe. _That_ means we can’t speak of this again- not to anyone.”

    “Not even to Ben?”

    “Not even to Ben.” He’d speak to his nephew soon enough- once Han and Leia were planet-side it would be time to reveal their son’s newly discovered talent, and he wondered what the aftermath of that revelation would be. His instinct told him Leia would be less than pleased, but Han was unpredictable, and there was no way of knowing what the former scavenger would think of his own child holding such a rare talent. “Promise me, Rey. It’s very important.”

    “I promise, Papa.” Her tiny hand reached for his, and Luke found himself yet again surprised by the firm handshake possessed in such a young girl. _She’ll be a force, herself, when she discovers the universe._

But for now that was not to be, and as they strode hand in hand toward the house where Ben waited, Luke peered up at the fading sky. To keep their children safe- to keep all that remained of his own continuing bloodline protected- he’d chosen to stay on Zaboombafoo.

    And stay they would. For now.

 ~~~

    “He can do _what_?” A sideways glance at Luke, and Leia continued to pace the length of her own tiny dwelling, hands drumming impatiently on the tabletop as she neared the kitchen, and back to the tiny cabinet near the door that held their outerwear. “Luke, what do you mean?”

    “I mean that he used the Force. He put Rey in that ceiling net, and I had to bring her back down. His control isn’t established yet- the powers are erratic.”

    “And no Yoda to help _him_ ,” Han muttered, earning another pointed glance- one Luke had difficulty translating. “What do you think we should do, kid?”

    “We should _stop_ it.” Leia’s panic was palpable, and her husband reached for her hand as she made another pass, the tight grasp drawing her to a halt.

    “There’s no way to stop it- you know that.” The widened blue eyes met Luke’s, and Han’s expression was already resigned- already hopeful, his friend realized, that _he_ could do the job Yoda no longer lived to do. “But there _is_ a way to keep it from getting out of control. Luke has to train him.”

    “I’m not prepared to train a new Jedi.”

    “But you’re all we have.” Leia reached out, let her fingers brush against her brother’s with the loving tenderness they’d shared for all the years since discovering each other. Life might have cheated them of knowing each other until adulthood, but sometimes he felt it was as if they’d never missed a second. And he could never say no- not when she looked at him the way she did, and hope blossomed in her eyes where worry had once been. “I can’t let him live a life without knowing what he can do, Luke- and you’re the only one who knows how to keep him safe. The only one I can _trust_.”

    “What’s this going to mean?” R2D2 beeped rapidly, and Leia’s hand moved to rest atop the battered dome of his head as he slid forward. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to lose him, R2.”

    “Yes, it does.” The words none of them wanted to say were spoken by the one person neither Skywalker expected to say them- Han Solo- and his exhaustion laced his tone as he met his wife’s eyes with a heavy sigh. “Leia...he can’t stay here. Not while the First Order is coming into power- not while we want to keep him safe from them. They’re both going to have to leave.”

    “No.”

    “There’s no choice.”

    “He’s…” It all spoke of history- a history he’d been told, in bits and pieces, on a planet that no longer existed. By people who had died so long ago, though their impact on him had never ceased to exist as they had. “He’s right, Leia. If we want Ben to get control of his powers and stay hidden from the First Order the best way to do that is for me to take him as far away as I can. And I’ll need you to care for Rey until it’s safe for us to come back.”

    “You can't ask me to send my son away.” The words cracked, and as Leia fled the room Han sighed- heavier than before, and tinged with recognizable defeat.

    “It has to be done.”

    “I know that, and you know that- but I think it’s going to be a long, long time before Leia is going to understand it.” Han glanced in the direction his wife had gone- toward the bedroom their son occupied- and wondered if she sat as she had when he’d been firstborn, stroking a hand over his then sparse scalp while humming songs he never knew. The miracle of his birth had been one neither was prepared for, and the first piercing cry of their baby boy in the corridors of the rebel base still echoed in his mind. “I’ll talk to her. You’d better talk to Rey- she’s going to have a hard time with this too, Luke.”

    “It can’t be helped.” He couldn’t imagine the reaction, didn’t want to- but Han was right, and as Luke strode toward his own home moments later he wondered how long it would take his daughter to forgive what he was about to do.

    Or maybe, he thought, she may even forget.

 


End file.
